African Politics and Society In Early Modern Times and The Kingdoms of Central and South Africa (695-705)

The States of West Africa and East Asia

Ghana > Mali > Songhay > Kanem-Bornu, Oyo, Asante > Swahili Decline

Ghana- estabished in the 4th or 5th century

• Controlled taxing and trans- Saharan trade
• Influenced much of west Africa

Mali- 15th century

• continued controlling trans- Saharan trade

Songhay Empire

• based in the trading center of Gao
• ruler- Sunni Ali
  • goal to conquer his neighbors to consolidate the empire
  • brought trading cities Timbuktu and Jenne under his control
• flourishing city-state
• Songhay Administration
  • heirarchy of command
  • navy to patrol Niger River
    • enabled Sunni Ali's successors to extend authority to the Sahara, east, and west
  • Emperors all Muslims- promoted Islam
• Trans-Saharan trade
  • Brought salt, textiles, and metal goods for gold and slaves
• Fall of Songhay
  • Moroccan army trekked across the Sahara
  • Empire crumbled, and that led to small, regional empires and city states
    • Some of the kingdoms were Kanem- Bornu, Oyo, and Asante
    • Coast city-states had commercial relations with European merchants
      • hurt city-states like Mali and Songhay because they lost their trans- Saharan trading partners
• Swahili Decline- East city-states fell
  • Portuguese naval expeditions led to the doom of the East city-states
    • Disrupted trade patterns and city- states never recovered

EW

The Kingdoms of Central Africa

• Kongo, Ndongo, Luba, and Lunda
• Kingdom of Kongo
  • best known central African state because of several written records
  • 14th century- 18th century
  • Centralized state- officials oversaw military, judicial, and financial affairs
  • 1483- Portuguese fleet arrived in Congo river and established commercial relations with the kingdom
    • turned into close political and diplomatic relations as well (good!)
    • Kings of Kongo even converted to Christianity and took it very seriously to establsih closer relations with Portuguese merchants
    • King Afonso 1 became a devoted Roman Catholic and wanted to convert all of his subjects as well.
    • Kongo had so many churches that it was referred to as the "Kongo of the Bell"
  • Slave Raiding in Kongo
    • Portuguese merchants sometimes went into Africa and made their own agreements with people selling slaves (trading weapons for slaves)
    • Some portuguese moved to Kongo and married there
    • Portuguese colonist went to war with Kongo... no more good relations between Portugal and the Kongo
      • Portuguese won and gradually withdrew and turned focus to Ndongo for more profitable business
• The Kingdom of Ndongo
  • Referred to as Angola by the Portuguese because the kings were called ngola.
  • Attracted wealth by trading with Portuguese
  • Portuguese founded a small colony there in 1575- goal was to establish a colony that would support large-scale trading in slaves
  • Queen Nzinga- led spirited resistance against Portuguese
    • Goal- drive Portuguese from her land, expel the Dutch, create a vast central African empire embracing the entire lower Congo basin
  • The Portuguese Colony of Angola
    • Queen died, Portugues tightened control and took over angola

The Kingdoms of South Africa

• Kingdoms dominated by political affairs in South and Central Africa
• Increased wealth because East African states wanted their gold, ivory, and slaves
• Europeans created relationships with these people because they wanted to build a trading post at Cape Town
• Dutch arrived to establish settlements
• Led to the formation of the Dutch and British colonies- Europe highly valued these colonies

Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa

-Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Islam and Christianity attracted increasing interests
• Islam was in commercial centers of west Africa and Swahili city-states of eats Africa
• 16th century, the city Timbuktu had a prominent Islamic university and 180 schools that taught the Quran
• African Muslims blended Islam with indigenous beliefs and customs
• They created a syncretic brand of Islam where men and women can associate with one another on much more familiar terms
• Their brand of Islam offended the Muslims and was considered to be impure

- The Fulani and Islam

• Fulani: A pastoral people who, for centuries kept herd of cattle in the savannas of west Africa
• late 17th century, they settled in cities
• They observed a strict form of Islam
• 1680 they formed military campaigns to establish Islamic states and impose their own brand of Islam in west Africa
• The Fulanis didn't kick out the other religions but founded a very powerful state and promoted the spread of Islam
• the campaigns stregthened Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa and laid a foundation for new rounds of Islamic stated building and conversions in the 19th and 20th centuries

- Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Christianity made compromises with the other religions
• the Portuguese community supported the priests and missionaries who introduced Roman Catholic Christianity as a foundation for commercial and political alliances with portugal
• Christian teachings blended with the african traditions to form syncretic cults

- The Antonian movement

• The Antonian movement was an influential syncretic cult in Kongo
• it began in 1704 when Dona Beatriz proclaimed that St. Anthony of Padua had possessed her and chosen her to communicate his messages
• St. Anthony was a 13th century Franciscan missionary and popular teacher, he became a patron saint of Portugal
• He was popular with Portuguese Christians
• Dona gained a reputation for working miracles and curing diseases
• She used that to promote her own brand of African Christianity
• She urged Kongolese to ignore European missionaries and heed her disciples instead
• 1706 she was arrested and was proven to be a false prophet
• She was burned at the stake but the Antonian movement didn't stop

Social Change in Early Modern Africa

• Despite increased state-building activity and political turmoil, long-established patterns were still followed by some, such as kinship groups.
• Kinship groups- sometimes the basis for social and political organization on a village level.
• Prominent individuals would organize the affairs of the groups and discipline those who violated community standards.
• Interaction with European peoples brought change to African society
• Trade brought European textiles and metal goods

-American Food Crops in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Trade brought new crops to sub-Saharan Africa, including manioc, maize, and peanuts
• Manioc was the most important of these because of its high yield and it thrived in tropical soils.

-Population Growth

• By the 18th century bread from manioc flour had become a staple food in west and central Africa, leading to a steady population growth
• 1500- 34 million, 1600- 44 million, 1700- 52 million, 1800- 60 million
• Even more remarkable because it took place during a period of forced migration to the New World (slavery)

ZK